Brian Coddington

Fatal wreck. A firefighter examines the mangled wreckage of a pickup involved in a four-truck crash that killed a woman and her 2-year-old son on U.S. Highway 95 Thursday. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Snap, crackle and plop. Bjorn Jones and Mark Aldridge clear a tree Tuesday, one of several that fell in Cd'A Forest Cemetery during Monday's storm. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Two men beat a 29-year-old Coeur d'Alene man while he walked to a city restaurant early Sunday, apparently mistaking him for a neo-Nazi skinhead. Robert DePaulis told Coeur d'Alene Police he encountered five men in the 700 block of north Fourth Street about 1:30 a.m. who were walking on the opposite side of the street. Two of the men - one black, the other white - crossed the street and punched him several times in the head and face, according to a police report.

Gary Thomas, in life jacket, inspects Boots, a 14-foot Burmese python, along with several other kids at Independence Point on Friday. Mike Crothers brought the snake down the park for a swim in the lake and a roam in the grass. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Smith

Spokane Valley fire officials worry that debris left behind by last November's ice storm and a wet spring could fuel a massive wildfire as hot, dry summer weather hits its stride. Tall grass and a healthy bed of pine needles, broken branches, and fallen trees remain in several areas where homes sit among tall ponderosa pines.

Shortly before he disappeared, the 16-year-old boy whose body was found in Latah Creek this month told investigators a fire that killed another youth last year had been set intentionally. Adam Crane's account of the events leading up to the shed fire gave Spokane Valley Fire District investigators a "person of interest" in the blaze, authorities said Monday. Deputy Fire Marshal Eric Olson described that person only as a teenage boy who was at the shed the night of the blaze Jan. 29, 1996.

Gordon Friberg was the 112th patient at the old Shriners Hospital. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

State transportation workers plan to reinforce footings on a bridge along state Highway 27 south of Rockford. The footings were exposed by heavy flooding earlier this year, and the work will help protect them from future flooding, said James Prudente, state Department of Transportation regional environmental manager.

Spokane County engineers plan to recommend a permanent ban on train whistles at a controversial Valley rail crossing when they meet with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad officials later this month. Currently, trains are prohibited on a temporary basis from sounding their whistles at the University Road rail crossing. The state Utilities and Transportation Commission and the railroad approved the plan last fall to use the crossing as a test case. Some residents and business owners near the crossing had complained the train whistles were disruptive.

Sheriff's deputies are searching for a man who tried to rob a Spokane Valley woman at gunpoint this week after knocking on her door and offering to sell her discount designer fragrances. The man talked briefly to the 25-year-old woman before pulling a black, short-barreled handgun from a box. He then ordered the woman into her house in the 1000 block of North Marguerite Road, said Deputy David Reagan, Sheriff's Department spokesman. The woman, who was home with her 21-month-old daughter, thwarted Tuesday's daylight robbery attempt by slamming the front door closed and locking it, Reagan said. Neither the woman nor her daughter was injured.

For sale: One-bedroom, one-bath rambler, with large kitchen and double garage (automatic opener a plus). Near major arterial, offering easy freeway access. Appraised at $220,000. After unsuccessfully trying to lease the building that until February housed Fire Station No. 3, Valley Fire District commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to put the building at Appleway Avenue and Michigan Road on the market. Commissioners previously opposed selling the station, preferring instead to lease the building. However, a lack of potential tenants and zoning difficulties prompted the fire commissioners to change their minds.

A trust fund has been set up for a Newman Lake teenager seriously injured last month in a rock climbing accident. Jeremy Vetter, 18, broke his back during a June 14 climbing accident near Post Falls. He is paralyzed from the waste down and is undergoing therapy at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute. Donations can be made to the Jeremy Vetter Trust Fund at any Seafirst Bank branch. Members of the Spokane Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church, of which the Vetter family are members, established the fund to help offset Jeremy's medical expenses.

Burglars cleaned out a Spokane Valley house over the weekend, taking about $30,000 worth of belongings they stuffed into the vacationing family's unlocked car. Stolen items ranged from the obvious - stereo equipment, television set, jewelry - to the odd - women's underwear, lingerie, socks. And, Keely Grunigen's light blue 1986 Buick Century. "They pretty much cleaned us out," said Grunigen's husband, David. "They tossed the house upside down."

A 15-year-old Newman Lake boy accused of stealing a ring of master keys from a housekeeper at a Spokane Valley apartment complex was arrested Monday on residential burglary charges. The complex manager told sheriff's deputies a housekeeping employee saw the teenager take the key ring from the open door of the apartment she was cleaning. The boy then ran into another nearby apartment, said Deputy David Reagan, a department spokesman.

The grown grandson of a Spokane Valley woman whose roaming dog was taken to the county animal shelter by a neighbor now faces malicious mischief charges for allegedly breaking it out. The county prosecuting attorney's office plans to seek a summons for a charge of misdemeanor malicious mischief against Stan Williams, 30 of Veradale, for the springing the pooch from the shelter, said David Reagan, Sheriff's Department spokesman. A detective investigating the case determined there was enough evidence to charge Williams with breaking his grandmother's boxer/ pit bull mix, known as Yoda, out of a temporary holding pen late on June 25 or early June 26, Reagan said.

Traffic west bound on I-90 was blocked on Wednesday afternoon by this accident. Washington State Patrol Sgt. Richard Wiley directs the removal of one of the damaged vehicles. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Burglars broke into another Spokane Valley school twice last week, ripping off video cassette players, two-way radios and a computer printer from South Pines Elementary. A custodian discovered the first burglary when he showed up for work last Thursday at the school, 12021 E. 24th. The principal reported the second on Saturday.

Two traffic revisions recently introduced near Sullivan Road and Interstate 90 are necessary to accommodate traffic expected to inundate the area when the Spokane Valley Mall opens later this summer, transportation officials said. Signs indicating an eastbound speed limit increase and a westbound decrease on Interstate 90 were moved about a half-mile east to the Sullivan Road overpass.

Sheriff's deputies are searching for a Peeping Tom who spied on a woman while she used a restroom at a Valley steak house and lounge early Sunday and then scuffled with a bartender. Witnesses to the incident at A Cut Above, 11723 E. Sprague, told deputies a man stood on top of a toilet in the women's restroom to peer into an adjacent stall at the woman. Another woman noticed the man and complained to the bartender.

Spokane County animal control officers confiscated an underweight pet cougar from a home south of Deer Park on Tuesday, the first such seizure under a new care and housing law enacted last year. Officers were called by a mortgage company that had taken control of the rural property. The cougar was discovered in a small, unlocked cage, animal control officials said. The cougar appeared to have been abandoned along with a dozen house cats, two ferrets and two rabbits. "We were somewhat surprised when we found out one was a cougar," said Nancy Sattin, county animal control director, who along with Officer Bob Smoldt seized the animals.

1. Valley firefighters help a driver after an accident on I-90 near Pines Road last week. Traffic stacks up during commuting hours and crawls after accidents. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. A light rail would run from downtown Spokane to Liberty Lake. The rail is the first choice of proposals, with others including an I-90 car-pool lane and a bus-only expressway. 3. Indiana Avenue is getting wider and longer. It now runs on the north side of the Spokane Valley Mall and will be improved at this intersection with Pines Road. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 4. Early morning traffic on the westbound lanes of Interstate 90 was backed up for miles because of this accident near the Sullivan entrance. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Sheriff's deputies arrested a Chattaroy man wanted on three outstanding warrants Thursday in the Spokane Valley, taking the heavily armed suspect into custody without incident. Che O. Herrmann, 24, was booked into the Spokane County Jail on a charge of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Bond was set at $25,000 a jail deputy said. Herrmann also was being held Thursday on a bench warrant for failure to comply with a court order stemming from a Spokane County reckless driving charge, a felony probation violation in Spokane County and a felony probation violation in Snohomish County. Bond for the Snohomish County probation violation was set at $2,500 the jail deputy said. Deputies who arrested Herrmann while he worked on a car in front of a home at 5006 E. Fourth found a .22-caliber pistol hidden in a pants pocket and a .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol tucked into a shoulder holster, said David Reagan, Sheriff's Department spokesman. Herrmann was convicted of felony cocaine possession and sentenced last December to two months in jail, making it illegal for him to possess a gun, Reagan said.

State Rep. Mark Sterk said he plans to resign from the Legislature during the next session to run for Spokane County sheriff. The Spokane Valley Republican, a city police sergeant, said he will seek the county's top law enforcement post in 1998, when Sheriff John Goldman's first term expires. Sterk said he will resign his seat in the state House of Representatives in March. He was appointed to the state House in 1995 and then won a two-year term last fall. He is vice-chairman of the House law and justice committee and serves on the Transportation Policy and Budget committee.